Most automobiles are equipped with a display panel usually mounted in or under the dashboard. The display panel includes a number of legends or signs which can be illuminated to provide warning signals or to indicate whether various functions have been performed by the car operator. Such panels may include, for example, the legends TEMP. and GEN. to indicate when the automobile radiator temperature is excessive and when the generator is not charging properly. The panel might also include a SEATBELTS legend which remains illuminated until the occupants of the car properly fasten their safety belts. There is usually a BRAKE legend which is illuminated to remind the car operator to disengage the safety brake before he puts the car in gear. Thus a given panel comprises several lamps which must be capable of being energized separately in order to illuminate the various legends in the panel independently of the others.
Usually a display panel of this type comprises a row of compartments, one wall of which faces the interior of the car, is translucent and carries the various legends. There is a small bulb positioned in each compartment which, when energized, illuminates the compartment so that a particular legend becomes visible to the driver. Thus each panel requires multiple electrical connections between the automobile's electrical system and the various bulbs in the display panel. Furthermore, those connections must be such as to permit the bulbs to be replaced in the event that they become defective. Heretofore, the bulbs have been retained in conductive sockets mounted in the display panel. Various types of sockets have been employed in the past. These include threaded sockets, bayonet sockets wherein the bulb is pressed into the socket and turned through a small angle so that it is retained in place. Other bulb connectors utilize various clips or springs to retain the bulb in place while at the same time making the required pair of electrical connections to the bulb.
While all of these prior connectors perform those required functions adequately, they are relatively expensive to manufacture because they require a relatively large amount of expensive electrically conductive metal such as copper or brass in the form of stampings to retain the bulbs. Also in many cases they are composed of several different parts which must be fabricated separately and then assembled. Each of those sockets must then be mounted in the particular panel structure, thereby further increasing the cost of the panel as a whole. Also in many prior display panels of this type, once the panel is installed in the automobile, the connectors and their lamps are relatively inaccessible so that it is difficult and time consuming to replace a defective bulb. Therefore repair costs are higher than they need be.